I wanted to do one more post about “Jonah Sweet of Delancey Street” being offered for free on Amazon just in case someone misses it. And I wanted to combine that post with something that had to do with indie/self-publishing, too. I haven’t posted much about indie publishing for a while and that’s only because I’ve been so busy with contracted books. But I haven’t backed away from indie publishing, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it once since I began doing it about a year ago.
Offering JSoDS was one of the things I had on my New Year’s resolution list and I didn’t want to let it go too long. At the time I released this book I’d just taken on a few new projects with publishers that I hadn’t expected, so I didn’t have the time to really write much about JSoDS or talk about it. And I’m really bad in the sense that when I release a book and I let it go I tend to block it out for a while. That’s partly because it’s hard to let go and partly because I’m usually moving on to the next project and there’s not much time to think or talk about it. It’s not always the best way to work, but at least I know it’s a flaw.
Most of all, I did want to do this free e-book for readers. As a reader I know how much I appreciate getting free e-books (thank you Jeremy C. Shipp) in promotions that are offered by publishers, authors, or retail web sites where e-books are sold. (ARe is great when it comes to these promos.) As an author, especially with my indie books like JSoDS, I also take into consideration that with e-books we can’t really share like we used to share print books. For example, I’m still reading Casual Vacancy by Rowling and I would love to have been able to share this with a few friends. I’ve always done that with friends. My print copy of “Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” went around Bucks County, PA for a year before it finally got back to me. But with e-books and DRM it’s not possible anymore. I know you can share e-readers, but I don’t, not even with Tony. So I figure that if authors and publishers want to balance this out they can offer free promotions every now and then to give readers a break.
With my books pubbed with publishers I don’t have any control or say in how promotions work, or when they do them. And I don’t get into that with my publishers. I let them take care of the business end of publishing and all I do is write the books and sign the contracts. I’m easy to work with in that regard. But with my indie books I have to look at things differently, and I’m not that easy to work with. I have to make all those business calls, not publishers, and I like perfection. And it’s not a bad thing. It’s one benefit with indie publishing I’ve come to embrace. If I want to offer a free promotion, it’s nice to know that I can do it. And it’s not something I ever take for granted. For those who are thinking about indie publishing, it’s something you’ll embrace as well.
In any event, you can download the free copy of “Jonah Sweet of Delancey Street,” here, on Amazon. And in case you don’t know anything about this book, here’s the blurb below. One interesting story with this book is that I’ve always had two covers for it. One that I paid to have designed by Dawne Dominique and another that I designed myself. I honestly couldn’t figure out which one to use for a long time. But I ultimately decided on the cover Dawne designed because I thought it worked best with the storyline of the book. There is a child in a wheel chair, and he changes the main characters lives. This book is more of a romantic tear jerker than others I’ve written. And I hope it shows character growth in ways that aren’t expected while reading the book. It was probably one of the most difficult I’ve written because I had to draw from research and personal experience this time.
In this 60,000 word full length novel, Jonah Sweet has a secret need to be dominated and punished, with whips and chains and leather cuffs. He also has a degree in puppetry from a good university, but can’t find a job and is still with his mom and dad in Queens. So he signs up for cooking school, hoping to learn a trade. But it’s nothing like he thought it would be and he winds up flunking everything from cutlery to hard-boiled eggs. The only other skill Jonah has is the ability to read other people’s thoughts, which he knows isn’t going to get him very far.
On the day of an important cooking exam, Jonah meets David Abernathy, the owner of the cooking school and a billionaire who owns restaurant chains, casinos, and real estate. The harder Jonah tries to impress David the worse it gets. But handsome David Abernathy sees something in Jonah. With no explanation at all, David sets Jonah up in an office, buys him a brand new wardrobe, and brings him into his unusual home on Delancey Street.
Though Jonah is stunned by all this, he’s even more stunned by the fact that he can’t read David Abernathy’s thoughts. But Jonah is in no position to turn any offers down. He takes the job in spite of David’s rude, nasty disposition and his erratic rants. From there they enter into an unusual relationship filled with light bondage and discipline and more love than either one of them could ever have imagined.
When David introduces Jonah to a little boy in a wheel chair and explains his past, Jonah only falls deeper in love with David. He discovers a gentle side of David no one knows about. But will intense love and exotic sex be enough to compensate for David’s complicated personality and his vicious need to control everything? And will Jonah be able to put up with David’s public outbursts and his violent moods?